by Brenna Tomas
Brenna Tomas is an interdisciplinary female artist, recreation therapist, writer and mother born and raised in Bawating, the Robinson-Huron treaty territory of Ontario, Canada, now called Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. She graduated with a diploma in Recreation Therapy from Canadore College in 2010, obtained her undergraduate degree in Art History and Studio Arts at Concordia University in the Spring of 2020, and completed her Masters degree in Education at the University of Ottawa in the summer of 2022. Her work in art criticism was published by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021 and Concordia University in 2020. Inspired by artists such as Penny Slinger, William Kentridge and Julie Mehretu, her practice is rooted in surreal automatism, abstract impressionism and psychoanalytic theory.
“My pieces are meant to challenge perception. I try to push my work forward by pushing my technical understanding of representation by only using certain materials. Although my work is very gestural, I like to give myself limitations and I try to adapt traditional techniques of representation by repurposing imagery in unique and unconventional ways. The experience is rooted in surreal automatism and for me, always seems to result in a product of abstract expressionism.” —Brenna Tomas
Headlight Anthology 